The formation of roads and building of bridges up to 30 foot span was primarily the task of the Tamahere Road Board which was formed on the 6th November 1872 under the provisions of The Highway Boards Empowering Act 1871.  The annual meeting of ratepayers held in January 1873 elected Patrick Leslie of Tamahere, Chairman. He farmed 950 acres near the gully which bears his name on State Highway One. He called his farm Wartie, after his family estate in Scotland -Wart Hill.

Tauwhare Map
Tauwhare Map


A rate of one penny in the pound was levied for 1873-74. A report on the Tamahere Riding of the Waikato County, 31st March 1877, lists 31 ratepayers who paid Forty pounds three shillings apd six pence in rates on the 20,820 acres they owned. The total valuation for rating purposes was Six thousand five hundred and forty seven pounds. Ratepayers paid two separate rates to the Road Board and the County Council until the Road Board was absorbed into the County in 1928.
In the early years the income of the Road Board was low, in sympathy with the incomes of most ratepayers, and progress in roadmaking was consequently slow. However, human nature being what it is, this did not stop continual agitation for better roading.
In 1879 the Board adopted a basis for land valuations in its area: first class grassland Eight pound per acre, second class grassland Six pound per acre, unimproved land Four pound per acre and swamp land Two pounds ten shillings per acre.
At Annual Meetings of ratepayers, two posts to be filled were those of "fence viewers". Presumably these two officers would inspect others' efforts in fencing their properties along the board's roads. Gorse on public roads was a problem.
In June 1879, the Tamahere Road Board, acting under authority of the Public Works Act 1876, formally took land for many roads in its area. One such, extended southwards from the county boundary at the Confiscation Line (Morrinsville end) to "join the Waitoa Road Board (Piako County) at the crossing of the Waitakaruru Creek". Nearly five and one half miles of this ran through the property of the Piako Land Association, also known as the Waikato Land Association. The Chief Surveyor, S. Percy Smith, eventually surveyed the roads, but he was a very busy man, and there were frustrating delays before they were gazetted. Even then it was many years before the northern end of the Tauwhare-Morrinsville Road was formed.
Henry Reynolds, Manager of the Waikato Land Association was also Chairman of the Tamahere Road Board 1878-81. In November 1882 he asked the Board to spend the Association's rates on the Tauwhare Road, presumably to assist in the sale of company land whtch was to be auctioned at Tonk's Mart, Auckland on the 6th December 1882. It seems little was done because in November 1886 the Road Board received a letter from Mr James Bailey, Manager of the Fencourt Estate, urging the Board to form five to six miles of road through swamp lands at Tauwhare. The Board decided it wasn't urgent but others didn't agree. In October 1886 a correspondent to the Waikato Times, in a letter to the Editor asked if there was an enterprising young man around who owned a dinghy. If he plied for hire at the entrance to Scotsman's Valley or on the Tauwhare flats he would do very well out of it. The flats were probably north of the village towards the county boundary,  just south of Schollum's Road. The letter writer suggested that the Road Board might operate a punt and from the profits, provide means for getting the water away.
Ten pounds were spent on the main road near Tauwhare, with the Land Association providing the drays.
The flooding situation must have improved because a Times reporter in July 1887 stated that thanks to the road board, the punt had not been needed on the flats that winter, but it could be useful at Whyte's Bridge, Scotsman's Valley, where the water had been up to the horses' girths for two days.
The road north of Tauwhare village was eventually sealed in 1940.
The Platt's Comer to Tauwhare Road was one of the earliest roads opened up because until 1930 it wathe main Hamilton-Piako Road. The foundattons, particularly the section at the foot of Lamb's hillside, had seepage problems and the road periodically became undulating because of its underlying instability.
In 1925 the Road Board was in dispute with the Eureka Drainage Board, which had deepened the drain at the end of Victoria Road (then known as Ferris Road). The Road Board considered this to be dangerous to traffic from Cambridge and was upset that it had not been consulted. A culvert under the Tauwhare Road needed to be lowered to take the water flowing through what is now Mr D. Fraser's property, but neither Board would accept the task. Mr H. A. Young, S.M. was appointed a Commissioner to report on the matter. He recommended that the Drainage Board lower the culvert and both Boards erect and maintain a white railing two chains in length, opposite the end of Ferris Road.
During 1925 the Tauwhare Road was reformed and metalled, being a vast improvement on its previous state. It carried the heaviest traffic in the district and was number one in priority at that time. The engineer estimated the cost of upgrading this road at Six thousand six hundred and thirty eight pounds, far more than the original one of One thousand nine hundred pounds. However, because of the extremely bad state of the road, caused by the very heavy traffic it had to carry, it had to be done, and others deferred. It was bitumen sealed 1926-27 but it eventually broke up under heavy traffic.
When Winstone Ltd., bought a controlling interest in the Tauwhare quarry in 1962 they asked the Waikato County Council to upgrade the road to Highway 26 at the Newstead Garage corner. The agreement reached was that the Council upgrade the road from Class 3 to Class 2, with Winstone Ltd., paying the cost. The work was done in 1963 at a cost of Forty thousand pounds.
One wonders why the main Hamilton-Tauwhare­ Morrinsville Road did not follow a paper road marked on early maps, along the high ground through the Dingle, Main, Woodcock and McNally properties. This would have avoided the problems associated with roading through swamps.
Highway 26 through to Morrinsville was not completed until about 1930. In the centennial history of the Piako County we read that in the late eighteen nineties the streets of Morrinsville were not metalled as road metal was too expensive. The traveller from Morrinsville could get to the second bridge but beyond that no formed road existed. Travellers could take their choice of tracks through ti-tree to the boundary of the Waikato County (Confiscation Line) where the semblance of a road appeared, which led through Tauwhare to Cambridge and Hamilton. An army map dated 1913, shows Hunter's Road linking Eureka with the Tauwhare Road, long before Highway 26 was put through Mr P. Clarkin's farm.
Swamp land on the low-lying part of Victoria Road also caused early problems. The Cambridge Road Board pressed the Tamahere Board to do something about it. In July 1883 Mr J. B. Whyte, member of the House of Representatives, wrote saying that the Government had instructed the Chief Surveyor, Mr Percy Smith, to drain 1,000 acres of Crown Land at Victoria Road. In September of the same year Mr James Bailey, Manager of the Fencourt Estate of the Auckland Agricultural Company, wrote complaining of the bad state of this section of road.     Captain James Runciman of Marshmeadows, Newstead, (Chairman of the Tamahere Road Board 1881-96) reported that he had instructed workmen to have the road made fit for horsemen to use. He had told Mr Bailey that until the company made provision for adequate drainage and outfall for the large amount of water coming from their land, the Road Board could not maintain the road satisfactorily. Their Engineer's estimate of the cost was Eight hundred pounds. In December 1883 the Times reported that the Cambridge end of Victoria Road, which had never been properly formed and which was almost closed in with a thick growth of ti-tree and flax, was about to be formed. This would be a much needed improvement.

In March 1885 Mr Bailey again wrote asking the Board to contribute to the drainage scheme they were about to begin, and also to a bridge costing Fifty seven pounds which they wanted to build over a large drain to be cut through Victoria Road. The Board agreed to the bridge proposal provided their engineer approved, but refused to assist the drainage scheme. This drain is the extension of the Mangaonua Stream which runs under the Matangi-Platt's comer road. The upper reaches of the drain link with the Waitakaruru Stream which rises north of the Te Miro School. Interestingly, this stream enters the Waikato River via Hinton's Gully and Riverlea and thus flows into the Tasman Sea, while the other Waitakaruru Stream, in Scotsman's Valley, flows via the Piako River into the Hauraki Gulf and the Pacific Ocean.
In June 1886 the above Mangaonua River became the dividing line between the eastern or Tauwhare sub­ division of the Tamahere Road Board and the western or Tamahere sub-division. Nowadays this area is known as Matangi-Newstead.
The northern part of Victoria Road was known as Ferris Road at least until 1925 when it appears so-called on a map, and in the Eureka Drainage Board dispute. In December 1907 it was decided to form 74 chains of Ferris Road. Two years later, in 1909, it was decided to make a cutting by removing 300 cubic yards of the first hill on Ferris Road where it meets the Tauwhare Road. Progress must have been slow in those days because in October 1912 the Engineer was asked to explain why the Ferris Road contract had cost an extra One hundred and fourteen pounds. Perhaps inflation had been the cause. Sealing of the Victoria Road, including the Ferris Road end, was completed in 1967.
December 1907 was also when Ringer Road was to have 25 chains formed. Because it went through swamp it entailed drainage and fascining. Sixty chains of this road were sealed in 1965. The hill portion of this to its junction with Victoria Road was once called Karika Road. Karika, a Ngati Haua chief, built an imposing home on the hill, now occupied by Mrs M. Wheki.
What is now called Hill Road appears on a survey plan of 2,000 acres of land "of the best quality", made by a Government Surveyor, F. H. Edgecumbe, in 1883. On this plan Ranstead Road was to continue right through to Scotsman's Valley, and Pukemoremore Road was to be a blind road ending where Ngati Haua School is today. Included on the plan was a sub-division of the Pukemoremore Block into 10 acre sections with access by no-exit roads off Pukemoremore Road.
The Tamahere Road Board decided in June 1927 to instruct its foreman to take levels and make plans for grading and formation of Hill Road for two miles 24 chains. The Board was to apply for a Government Grant for foundation work. It is unlikely that the Tamahere Road Board completed this work as it merged with the Waikato County Council in April 1928, and presumably the County did the work. Hill Road was sealed in stages between 1967 and 1973.
About two miles of Pukemoremore Road were formed from the Cambridge end in 1940 by the Public Works Department, at the same time as development was begun on the 950 acre Pukemoremore Block. Lang Road, running east from Pukemoremore Road, was formed by the Waikato County Council in 1953 to give access to the Larig property. The section of Pukemoremore Road from Lang Road corner through to Scotsman's Valley was at first a walking track. It was widened and formed into a proper road in February 1957. Both Pukemoremore and Lang Roads are as yet unsealed.
The Scotsman's Valley Road appears on the earliest maps of the district. In October 1880 the Times reported that the settlers in the Tahuroa district (including Scotsman's Valley) east of the Confiscation Line, finding that they got nothing in return for rates paid to Piako County, were anxious to become annexed to the Tamahere Highway Board's district, and that Board was going to assist them. This it often did in practical ways even though it was not until the 28th April 1928 that, by Government Gazette notice, the Waikato County extended its boundary eastward from the Confiscation Line to the head of the valley where Tahuroa number one block meets Tahuroa number two block. This area was merged into the Tamahere Riding. A petition to the Waikato County Council asking for this to be done, had been signed by Mrs Mary E. Shaw (widow of Mr Charles Shaw) and Messrs A. W. Playle, L. F. Thompson, R. Holden, Chas. Shaw junior, W. W. Goodare, Andrew and Alex Ramsay, R. Holmes, R. G. Griffin, R. J. Nicholls, A. McInns and Fullerton Brothers. Even though it took 48 years to achieve, it shows what can be done by perseverance.
In the interval the Tamahere Road Board and the Piako County Council often shared the costs of making improvements to the Scotsman's Valley and Griffin Roads, the Road Board often having the work done by landowners in the areas concerned. In February 1881 Mr W. Chepmell, Chairman of the Waitoa Road Board of the Piako County, complained in a letter about the bad state of the road in the vicinity of Whyte's Bridge, which had its decking replaced the following month in an effort to improve matters. However, by May 1885 it had entirely broken down and had to be rebuilt. This bridge did not last long either, for in May 1900 Messrs Ramsay and Furze were authorised by the Board to inspect and repair the same bridge. A year later they reported the bridge had been reconstructed in heart kauri. The timber cost Twenty two pounds seven shillings and the labour Twenty pounds.
In November 1898 James Shaw was paid Nine pounds for the formation of 14 chains of Scotsman's Valley Road. In April 1908 Messrs Charles Shaw and Moroney urged the Board to metal a portion of the Valley Road. The Board agreed to subsidise the work up to Twenty pounds. They also accepted a tender of Thirty eight pounds eighteen shillings and four pence to lower Eyre's Hill, further up the valley.
A sub-divisional plan of the property called "Glenburn" owned by Thomas and the late Charles Shaw, surveyed in May 1922 after the latter's death, notes that the Valley Road was then formed, metalled and in public use, but how far east is not stated. Probably by then it was in reasonable order because in February 1918 Andrew Ramsay, junior, had asked the Board for a better road to serve his property, the length requested being 64 chains. A note appears in the Minutes that the road had been formed about 1898 and that about Four hundred pounds had been spent on it since then. Mrs V. E. Goodare who came to live in the valley with her husband, Walter, in 1919, remembers the wheel tracks being metalled up to their gate from the Tauwhare end, with grass between the wheel tracks. However, further on it was a clay track, and they sometimes had to leave the car and walk home after visits to Morrinsville, the track having become impassable because of rain.
The Valley Road was sealed in stages of one mile per year from 1955 to 1960.
Like the Scotsman's Valley, most of Griffin Road (now Tahuroa Road) was in Piako County until 1928. The road was surveyed by a Mr Cousins in 1879 and the Tamahere Road Board began forming a ten foot wide road about that time. However, they cannot have got very far. Mr F. W. Browning owned the land now farmed by Mr Richard Nicholls. Browning was the first settler to take up land in 1879. In October that year he complained to the Tamahere Road Board that he was unable to get to his land, which being just across the Confiscation Line, was in Piako County and just outside the Tamahere Road Board's area. The road was impassable, but the Board had no money and couldn't help. In January 1880 Browning sent a bill for Twenty eight pounds sixteen shillings and seven pence for forming four chains of approaches to two bridges he had built to get to his farm, but the Board again refused to pay. However, it must have relented somewhat, because in May 1883 it called tenders for about 500 yards of cutting and filling near MrBrowning's, and in April 1886 called tenders for further road works at the bridge. James Shaw's tender of sixpence per yard for shifting earth and Four pounds for bridge work, was accepted. The winter of 1887 must have been a wet one because in July, Browning's bridge had been entirely destroyed by a flood and had to be replaced. The bridge referred to, spanned the stream running through Harry Fawcett's farm into Noel Pope's.
The gradient of Browning's Hill was eased, and gravel spread in July 1900. This hill was later known as Pope's Hill, and is the first hill after leaving the flat on the Tahuroa Road. It continued to give trouble to the settlers living beyond it.
In June 1917 the Board agreed to spend up to Fifty pounds on Pope's Road to give Messrs Griffin and Hintz access to their farms, if the Piako County Council would contribute a similar amount. It also agreed to supply 14 nine-inch pipes to Griffin Brothers for replacement of an old wooden culvert on this road. The Piako County Council would only contribute Twenty five pounds so the interested settlers offered the other Twenty five pounds and Mrs C. Pope offered sand from her property. Tenders were then called.
Mr Leo Griffin, son of Mr Ted Griffin. remembers his father sometimes using the paddocks alongside when it became impossible for his 1919 Studebaker car to continue on the road. In 1921 Mr R. G. Griffin offered Ten pounds towards some improvement. The Board decided to add Ten pounds and ask the Piako County Council to do the same. They would not, so Mr Griffin was authorised to do the work at a cost of no more than Ten pounds to the Board. In 1923 Fullerton Brothers wanted work done on Pope's Hill and they offered Ten pounds. The Board offered another Ten pounds if Piako County would do the same.
In 1928 the Tamahere Road Board and portions of the Piako County just east of the Confiscation Line, were incorporated into the Waikato County and that Council then becaome responsible for the whole road.
During 1933 the Waikato County Council discovered that the section of road from the Tauwhare end to Nicholls corner had not been officially dedicated as a road. A special resolution was passed to remedy this. William Newell, Chairman of the County Council, made a solemn declaration in 1934, confirming customary public use of the said road during the previous 55 years, and stating that Five hundred pounds had been spent on the road during this period. The District Land Registrar acceded to the request to legalise the existing situation, although he noted that there was no precedent for doing so.
Very slow progress was made in improving the upper portion of Tahuroa Road. A sub-division plan of 1927 has the road marked as "Formed Road in public use", through R. G. Griffin's property (now Hansen's on the left and Robertson's on the right). However, Mrs Win Morrison (nee Nicholls) who came to live there in 1925 recalls the road above their farm as a clay track through scrub, as far as the Tahuroa School, where a better road began. Mr Fred Hansen recalls the road as being a grass track when his father bought 865 acres from Mr Robert Griffin in 1931. Grass was the initial surface for many of the district roads, followed by sand or gravel, then metal and finally tar seal, usually done in stages. Griffin Road was sealed to Nicholl's corner in 1967, a further length in 1983, and the rest has yet to be completed. The name of the road was changed to Tahuroa Road in 1977.
Gravel was the road surface on most roads for many years. The need for gravel pits was constantly felt by the Road Board. Prior to 1900 gravel was obtained from pits on the land of Messrs Dodd, Peterson, Ewen, Trubshaw, Furze and half an acre of land just west of Tauwhare Pa. In 1903 Mr Ramsay agreed to the Board taking gravel from one acre at Tauwhare. This pit is now a small depression in Mickell's paddock opposite the telephone exchange. In the days when sports were held adjacent, the pit was much deeper and served as an open-air gents changing room. Another large sandpit was on Victoria Road between Beer and Pukemoremore Roads. The Road Board usually paid Ten pounds for gravel from an acre or less, or threepence per cubic yard, which was the price offered W. Pope for gravel in 1911.
Limestone metal was obtained from Te Kuiti and cost Four shillings per cubic yard. It was railed to Tamahere Railway Station (after 1906 called Matangi) and unloaded by hand. It was excellent material.
To spread the gravel or metal, horse-drawn graders had been used, but in 1903 Mr A. Primrose was offered Three pounds ten shillings per day for the use of his traction engine and driver, to pull the Board's grader.
At a special meeting on the 14th Apri11906 the Board resolved "that one acre of land be purchased from Mr A. Ramsay (Andrew Ramsay junior who farmed Bullick's and Bowen's present farms) for Twenty five pounds, for the purposes of a quarry for road metal, Mr Ramsay agreeing to give right of way to the said land for One pound per year, to erect a bridge over the creek, form a road to the main road and put in a small culvert, without extra charge". It would seem that the vendor was a public spirited citizen. This quarry site was the first operated by the Board and is visible from the road. Three pence per cubic yard was the royalty charged for road metal from Ramsay's quarry. A petition from several ratepayers urged the Board to continue using the high quality limestone metal on the road from the village to Tamahere (Matangi) Station. The Board agreed.
In December 1908 the board defined a Tauwhare Special Rating District to provide the interest and other charges on a 1,000 pound loan raised for the purpose of metalling the road from Matangi Railway Station to Tauwhare Village and the boundary of the district. A special rate was levied of three sixteenths of a penny in the pound on the rateable value of all rateable property in the special rating area.
By 1914 Mr Mark Webb was in charge of the quarry. He was allowed to charge a shilling a yard for himself and threepence royalty for The Board, for any stone he broke. Settlers could break stone for their own use on payment ofthe threepence per yard royalty. A good man would break two cubic yards in a day. Stone was broken by hammer until 1919 when a small crusher and engine were installed, costing six hundred and three pounds, nine shillings and sixpence.
New valuations in May 1918 meant the capital value of the district was six hundred forty-four thousand, five hundred and forty eight pounds. A rate of three farthings in the pound would produce one thousand, eight hundred and fifty-seven pounds income. The debit at the Bank of New Zealand was eight hundred and sixty-two pounds, so the income was badly needed, especially as the roads were not standing up to increased traffic and metal was inadequate by the end of World War One.
At its meeting in December 1919, The Board decide to enquire into the cost and capabilities of a motor lorry or tractor for road work. The Great war just concluded had meant much improvement in things mechanical. The Board seemed keen to modernise, hence the installation of the small crusher at the quarry.
At the 1920 Annual Meeting, ratepayers were told the total income was two thousand, three hundred and twenty-seven pounds and after meeting all expenses nine pounds, four shillings and one penny was left over. Messrs J and W Ranstead asked what the board intended to do regarding the Matangi-Tauwhare road which was in the worst possible condition. The Tauwhare Factory had closed in 1917 and this road now carried heavy traffic to the Matangi Factory as well as the Matangi Raliway Statton. Both men urged the board to consider concreting the road, at least from the Matangi factory to Platt's corner. It was decided to raise a loan of thirty-three thousand pounds, of which seven thousand pounds would be spent on road-making machinery, and the rest to bitumen the Board's roads. Fifteen thousand pounds was to be raised in 1920, fifteen thousand pounds in 1921 and three thousand pounds in 1922. A poll of ratepayers held on July 23rd 1920, carried the proposal by 165 votes to 57. An engineer, Mr Gannon, estimated the cost of sealing at two thousand, six hundred pounds to three thousand pounds per mile. Tauwhare metal was suitable for foundations but not for surfacing. The cost of suitable stone from outside the district was twenty-two shillings and sixpence per yard.
In April 1921, the Annual Meeting was told the bank overdraft was four hundred and ninety-eight pounds. The Board had managed to raise a loan of ten thousand pounds from the State Advances Office but none of it was allowed to be used to purchase road-making machinery. Because of damage to the roads by heavy traffic, by-laws including licence fees payable, were being drafted.  These were adopted in February 1922 and allowed 16 bags of slag, ten bags of bonedust or artificial manure or seven bales of dressed flax, to be carried on board roads. No speed greater than ten miles per hour was allowed until 1924 when light vehicles could travel at 25 miles per hour.
It was decided to begin sealing the Platt's corner to Matangi road, using part of the ten thousand pound loan. By the Annual Meeting of 1922, four thousand, six hundred pounds had been spent on this road, and the rest on other roads in the Board's area. The Board decided it could not afford the interest and repayments on any further loans. However, it did buy a "Sentinel" steam truck at a cost of one thousand, five hundred and thirty pounds. It cost eight shillings and sixpence to get it from Auckland to Matangi. Presumably this was for coal. Plenty of water would have been available on the way. It was probably a heavy vehicle on solid rubber tyres as in July 1924 it was decided not to use it in the winter months. The driver was offered ordinary road work at the usual rate of thirteen shillings and tenpence per day. Road workers' wages had risen considerably over the years. In 1883 wages were seven shillings a day. During the 1887 depression the Road Board reduced wages to five shillings a day. By 1903 they were paying six shillings per day per man, and three shillings per day per horse. Ten years later W. Trubshaw, a contractor, was charging seventeen shillings and sixpence for a man, a horse and a dray, or thirty-seven shillings and sixpence per day for a four horse team and man. In 1925 wages were four pounds ten shillings a week.
Ramsay's quarry ceased to function in 1923 and another site was opened up on the property of Mr Charles Shaw, junior, in Scotsman's Valley (opposite the end of Pukemoremore Road). This is now surrounded by Mr Lewis Hoyle's pine plantation. The Board agreed to pay ninepence per cubic yard royalty for one year. However, Mr Shaw was not willing to sell any land. The Road Board decided that the prospects were better up the valley, and in November 1924 a provisional agreement was made with Mrs M.E. Shaw, which gave the Board the right to enter Mrs Shaw's property and prospect for, quarry, and take away road metal upon payment of a royalty. Mrs Shaw gave the Board the right to purchase an area for a quarry, after six months.
At the Annual Meeting of 1925, ratepayers were told that the old trouble of metal supplies had been solved and this would at least enable the Platt's corner - Tauwhare Road to be upgraded and eventually bitmen sealed. An Anderson portable crusher with elevator, screens and hoppers all driven by a 40 horsepower electric motor costing one hundred and ninety-seven pounds, had been installed at Shaw's quarry. A tramway connected the quarry face with the crusher and hoppers, which were situated at the roadside.     Norman Ferris recalls that an old horse "Billy", was bribed with chaff at each end of the tram track, to pull the trolley. The face was opening up well. December 1925 saw the Board exercise its option to buy 12 acres for two hundred and thirty-three pounds. The foreman was authorised to negotiate cartage of metal from the crusher to any part of the Platt's-Tauwhare Road at a price not exceeding four shillings and ninepence per yard.
The 12th December 1925, was a sad day for the Tauwhare district.  Mr Mark Webb, who had been quarry foreman for many years, and his grandson, were both electrocuted when a storm brought down a live wire on to a fence which both touched. They were living in the cottage on Stokes Farm (formerly Hanan's).
The next year the Annual Meeting was told that the optimistic forecasts regarding the quarry had been realised. There was ample stone available for years to come, not only for local needs, but also to supply Hamilton Borough and many miles of main highway. About 5000 yards of metal had already been crushed and the cost in the bins was below four shillings and sixpence per yard. In the past the Board had paid for many thousands of yards of imported metal costing one pound per yard on the roads.
The Board charged ten pounds for a permit to operate a heavy lorry, and would allow only one permit per carrier. In 1927, Mr V. Lynds, a Tauwhare Carrier, offered one pound in part payment for a permit. He was told it was ten pounds or no permit.
The Annual ratepayers meeting in 1927 was told that in conjunction with the Cambridge and Whangamarino Road Boards, the Tamahere Board had succeeded in rejecting a move by the Waikato County Council to merge these boards in the county. Tamahere board roads would suffer neglect because the quarry and plant would be taken away. The output of metal the previous year had been 7390 yards.
However, later in 1927, meetings were held with representatives of the Waikato County Council regarding the merger, and events began to influence a change in the Board's thinking. Councillor T. Clarkin, a former Member and Chairman of the Road Board, urged it to merge wtth the County as this would be in the best interests of all. The County Chairman, Councillor W. Newell, also spoke strongly in favour of merging, and the County Clerk, T. B. Insoll, said another Seven hundred to eight hundred pounds in subsidies would become available if a merger took place.
Early in 1928 it became obvious that the Road Board could not continue because of its financial position. Its assets were a bank credit of Fifty pounds plus a heap of metal worth approximately One hundred and twenty five pounds. At its meeting on the 29th March 1928, the Foreman reported that he had closed the quarry completely. On the following day the Tamahere Road Board went out of existence, having served its ratepayers to the best of its ability for 56 years. While it was adequate for the needs of the horse and buggy age, nemesis in the form of the motor truck and car, had overtaken it.
In the early days, meetings were held at the Board's Office in Hamilton, and often lapsed for want of a quorum. Meetings began at 2.00 p.m. or 3.00 p.m. in the afternoon, and were held on a date near the full moon, so that members could ride home when the moon came up. Later, meetings were held at the Matangi Hall which was more central and convenient for most members.
Members of the Board were often asked to act as unpaid supervisors when work was being done on their local roads. Tauwhare people who served on the Board were Andrew Ramsay, senior, James Shaw, Archie Hoye, Alex Ramsay and Paul Ringer.
With the demise of the Tamahere Road Board, the responsibility for roads was taken over by the Waikato County Council. It is interesting that prior to the merger no Tauwhare resident represented the Tamahere Riding on the County Council, but since the merger the riding has always been represented by a Tauwhare resident.
There have been 12 representatives in 100 years: 
J. I. Barugh - 1884-1896
A. Furze - 1896-1899
A. T. F. Wheeler- 1889-1904
L. B. Ewen- 1904-1908
T. Clarkin - 1908-1926
S. G. Lye- 1926 - 1929
D.P. Laird- 1929- 1935
P. E. Dingle- 1935 - 1944
T. P. Coles - 1944 - 1950
A. H. Houghton - 1950 - 1965
R. J. L. Nicholls - 1965 - 1975
C. H. Badger - 1975 -

References
Tauwhare Centennial History 1884-1984